DaSH: a catalyst for innovation and economic growth in the Hunter region

Beyond Bank Australia welcomes the opening today of the new DaSH Co-Work space in Charlestown and congratulates Dantia on developing this shared office environment to support and encourage local entrepreneurs.

DaSH Co-Work is a 450sq metre, 65-desk office hub located in Lake Macquarie’s commercial centre, Charlestown, on the upper floor of Hilltop Plaza.

Start-ups will be able to access affordable office space they can use daily, casually or on an as needs basis. It will be accessible 24 hours in recognition of the flexibility businesses starting out need. Demand from local entrepreneurs for space has already exceeded expectations, with one-third tenanted before opening.

Timothy Davidson from Visualise Media and Ivan Demidov from Demidov Innovations met at an early DaSH concept event. Both already had their own businesses and a piece of the puzzle, but realised they could be a perfect fit in creating a high quality virtual reality product. Or as Tim likes to say, “He’s the smarts, I’m the arts.”

Ivan was using virtual reality technology to provide walk and fly throughs of spaces, but Tim’s animation and graphic design skills have allowed them to take things to the next level. Together, they are creating completely interactive products that can be used to provide high quality customer experience through to experiential learning in schools.

“What this means,” Ivan explains, “is that if you are thinking about purchasing a home for example, we can develop a product for the real estate agent or developer that lets you walk through it. You can see where the sun comes in at certain times of the day, place furniture to see how it looks and fits, change flooring materials or paint colours.”

Through their new enterprise, Tim and Ivan have already opened up new opportunities both locally and overseas. The capacity of their virtual reality product, including Oculus Rift technology, will be on display this evening from 6 pm at Central Bar at 145 King Street, Newcastle. Their websites are visualisemedia.com.au and demidov.com.au.

“We think entrepreneurs have much to offer our region, particularly in terms of growing our economy and employment,” Beyond Bank Community Development Manager, Kylie Daniels said. “Therefore, it is important to Beyond Bank to be able to help them move from an idea to a flourishing, sustainable business. Start-up expenses, particularly those associated with office infrastructure can be a major barrier for someone thinking about taking that step into business.

“By supporting DaSH, we hope we can help provide a high-tech environment in which people can work, share ideas and opportunities and even partner up for success. We know DaSH has already helped two local entrepreneurs come together and create a new virtual reality product that has huge potential.”

“Beyond Bank Australia is behind similar shared spaces in other regional cities and they play a key role in bringing new businesses and innovations to life,” Ms Daniels said. “We were very excited to be able to help bring DaSH to the Hunter. We are confident stories like Ivan’s and Tim’s will only be the first of many coming out of DaSH.”

Tim and Ivan agree. “It is about those watercooler moments, businesses meeting and sharing,” Tim said. They believe DaSH will be beneficial for small and medium businesses due to its central location, availability of car parking nearby and ease of access. “We think it will help local businesses develop and be competitive.”

DaSH is not the only way Beyond Bank Australia is supporting local entrepreneurs. It will shortly launch a new round of its Community Entrepreneur Program (CEP), which offers local entrepreneurs the chance to secure a grant to further progress their business. The winner of the first round of the Hunter CEP was HiveUAV.

“Through DaSH we will have a new avenue through which to promote CEP directly to local entrepreneurs,” Ms Daniels said.

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